a peh a tish ateh eh vahmo

The text is one of the Exeter Book riddles (yes I'm back on my bullshit), which you can find here, and its answer is "anchor":

I war oft against wave     and fight against wind, do battle with both,     when I reach to the ground, covered by the waters.     The land is strange to me. I am strong in the strife     if I stay at rest. If I fail at that,     they are stronger than I and forthwith they wrench me     and put me to rout. They would carry away     what I ought to defend. I withstand them then     if my tail endures and the stones hold me fast.     Ask what my name is.

I figured it tied well to the idea that their relationship and emotions endure, even if it's hard for them to realize that it's not as bad as they think it is. They're each other's anchor, and so on...

There are a couple of small details I wanted to share since I think they're not very clear haha.

So both of them have weapons aimed at each other's heart, but while Soap is taut and ready to shoot, Ghost's hold on his knife is loose, the blade nearly slipping out of his hold. In this metaphor, I imagine it as Soap trying so hard to express his feelings, while Ghost is on his way to give up, let them stay buried and hidden.

On the other hand, Soap is bleeding from his chest, Ghost holding a bloody knife in his other hand. Ghost, even if he didn't want to, already hit Soap, his feelings affecting him before either of them noticed. No matter what he chooses now, his affection has already been made clear...

And lastly, Ghost is the only one showing his heart, chest bare, armour stripped away. Any shot Soap makes will be sure to hit, and maybe some part of Ghost wants it, because in his mind, it'll be enough to kill him, and he'd rather go before Soap. He'll understand this won't be the death of them, eventually, but he has to brave that first shot to do so.

I wanted to have a very dream-like vibe to the whole painting, so I used mainly cool tones, which I'm really not used to, and had really light highlights, like a fuzzy polaroid picture. Everything behind them swirls together, since this isn't meant to be real.

The last pic I added was just a red version I wanted to see, I like the crunchy look it has because of the blending modes I used, it reminds me of certain games with a gothic aesthetic... If I can get the dimensions to fit I might make it the banner on my blog.

Also just for fun here's the reference I used:

and the one of the most liked comment on pinterest on that pic (we all share a braincell lol):